


The Right Fit

by oneatatime



Category: Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Multi, au-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:13:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22567630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneatatime/pseuds/oneatatime
Summary: “Have you ever heard of a soulmate who isn’t?”
Relationships: Trent Fernandez-Mercer/Kira Ford/Ethan James/Conner McKnight
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30
Collections: Ranger Romance Ficathon 2020





	The Right Fit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jen425](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/gifts).



“Have you ever heard of a soulmate who isn’t?” Conner plonked his bag down on the blanket – too heavy, too many stupid books - and plonked himself down next to Ethan with a discouraged groan. 

Ethan’s thigh was a solid warmth against his side. Lying like this meant that he couldn’t have his entire body on the blanket, but that was okay. It felt good. Ethan reached over and stroked his shoulder, and he nestled closer. Ethan could be a pain in the ass sometimes (and Conner was fair enough to admit, at least privately, that he was pretty good at that himself). Ethan was also really good at knowing when he needed to be touched. 

He could still make out Kira’s face through the frame of the denim over Ethan’s knee, and bumps in Ethan’s orange/black picnic blanket. He could still see her even though his eyes half closed in relief at Ethan’s touch. He’d always be able to see her, even with his eyes shut. She was radiant. They both were. 

Kira frowned. “Are you going to finish that sentence? Isn’t what?” 

“Isn’t a soulmate. Doesn’t work out. Isn’t right.” 

Kira shook her head. “Nah. Doesn’t happen. If someone’s a soulmate, then they’re a soulmate.” 

Conner raised a hand and flapped it at the other two. Ethan grabbed his wrist and pushed back his long-sleeved shirt enough to inspect his soulmark. Conner felt the wave of concern move through him. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t quite worry. Just. Concern. 

“Mine’s the same,” Ethan said quietly, his free hand going automatically to his upper arm. “There’s a dash of white on it, just like yours.” 

Kira laughed, and tapped her shoulder. “Mine changed yesterday, too.” 

After they’d found out about Trent’s dad being Mesogog. After Trent had apologised, and explained.

After Trent had proceeded to place himself between Conner and a hell of a lot of hurt. 

Conner leaned on Ethan, ignoring Ethan’s grumbles about being used as furniture yet again, and sat up. “What do you wanna do about it?” 

That was leadership, right? Sometimes you had to tell people what to do, sure. But you also needed to find out what they _wanted._ Get their input. Dr O had been really good about talking to him about all this. They’d be a stronger team If they listened to each other. It was kind of like soccer in that way. Good captains knew their team’s strengths and preferences, and let them make decisions, and overall did what was best for everyone. 

“Soulmate doesn’t have to mean dating,” Kira offered. “Soulmate can mean friends, or family.” 

She picked up a chunk of strawberry with deft fingers and waved it in Ethan’s direction. Ethan responded by opening his mouth, so Kira grinned, tossed it at him, and high fived him when he caught it. 

“So you don’t want to date him?” 

Did Conner want to date Trent? He thought about this, and thought about the corner of his mind that now seemed to be occupied by a sense of Trent, and thought about how. . . how gentle it felt. Strong, but gentle. Like warm sunshine on the back of your neck when you were dribbling a ball. He kind of wanted to bask in the feeling. 

Ethan swallowed. “I wouldn’t mind.” 

“Really? . . .Nah, I got it. You mean it. I – I think I’m the same. I don’t trust him,” Conner took a deep breath, “but I want to, and I think he’s worth it.” 

“Me, too,” said Kira. “Maybe we take it slow? See how he feels?” 

“Hey, you didn’t do that with me,” Conner protested. He rummaged around in his bag and found three cans of soda. 

“You could’ve said no at any point. You were too dumb for your own good, just like with your bio homework and yeah I’ll help you with it later,” Ethan told him. “Fast was the only choice.” 

“Yep! Peace was never an option with you.” 

“Guys-!” 

He found himself flat on his back again, with the two of them over him, holding him down. Sunlight in their eyes and laughter on their lips. Kira was the first to kiss him. Ethan wasn’t far behind. 

***

Trent came to Conner’s basement next time Conner had a bio assignment, and proved himself useful yet again outside of fighting. He’d continued to be good there. 

“No, that’s _meiosis_ ,” Trent said patiently, tapping the book. 

Ethan looked up from the TV and his current game of Death Cheese. He had to bring his own gear each time he came over because Conner didn’t understand games, but that wasn’t the end of the world. Wasn’t like he didn’t have packing it all down to a fine art. He could fit it in his Squirtle backpack just fine. Conner had good equipment in his basement, a really comfy green couch, and the starlight through the window made Conner and Kira both look amazing. 

Conner liked having the lights off, so they just had lamps at their various spots. Little pools of light. 

There was a way that Kira’s eyes twinkled when she was getting engrossed in her latest song, in the corner there, with her guitar. Singing softly to herself, and occasionally stopping to scribble in her notebook. 

And the way that Conner’s face lit up when he actually got what Trent was explaining. It was awesome. Conner was a dumbass, yeah, but that didn’t mean he was incapable of understanding all schoolwork. Just meant that some of it took a little extra effort. (And only Ethan, and Kira, and occasionally Dr O or Hayley, were allowed to call him stupid.) 

Trent – Trent looked good, too. Relaxed, and calm, and his hair was so dark it was shiny. 

*** 

Kira looked out over the audience, and grinned when she saw the three boys in the corner together. Wasn’t guaranteed this time, not like when she was playing at Hayley’s Cyberspace, but somehow they’d all juggled work and school and practice and saving the world training, and they were here for her. Ethan and Conner had understood her unspoken panic and had made sure the three of them showed they knew how important this was for her. 

Maybe Trent understood, too. 

It was a new club, just starting up. That was how she’d managed to score the gig. The stage was bigger than at Hayley’s, so her new drummer Manisha felt too far away, but Kira turned and smiled at her and it helped. 

Ah, there was Hayley and Dr O, as well. Dr O had some kind of seedling packet he was talking to Hayley about, but when Kira strummed her first E minor, he stuffed it in his pocket and looked up to meet her eyes. 

***

Making everyone relax was part of being a good leader, too, right? So after that whole incident with the egg monster, Conner grabbed them all and dragged them to see The Princess Diaries 2. He had birthday money. Might as well spend it on something good. 

Kira and Ethan grumped loudly around their armfuls of soda and popcorn as they walked up the stairs towards their cinema, but Trent bumped shoulders with him. “I liked the first one,” he confided softly. 

“Yeah?” Conner grinned. “I’ve seen it five times. Shows there are no accidents in soulmarks.”

Trent’s eyebrows went up, but he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” 

Was that the first time they’d mentioned soulmarks to him? Maybe. 

Conner didn’t care all _that_ much if Trent actually wanted to see this, because they were gonna see it no matter what (he was paying, and technically they could walk out) – but yeah he totally did care that Trent was making an effort like that for him. 

***

Ethan was having a really _odd_ day, and when you fought dinosaur monsters most days of the week, that was saying something. 

Devin had the tiniest, cutest wings he’d ever seen in his life. Conner had a tail. A tail! And Cassidy couldn’t stop granting wishes, except that wasn’t exactly what it was. 

Ethan dove over the last table in the cafeteria and tipped it, so he could tuck himself in behind.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Kira snapped at him, but it was that kind of snapping that meant she was upset and guilty and angry about being upset and guilty. She wasn’t actually angry _at_ him. He liked that he knew her well enough to know that, and to not take it personally.

He _totally_ took the rest of it personally, though. 

“Did you really have to complain to Cassidy about how calculus was trying to hurt me?” he wailed to her for the fifteenth time. He peered up over the table, and saw Kira whirl into action again with her orange lunch tray, braids whipping around her as she moved. She smacked the first equation and sent it careening into the window. Then she spun, and back-kicked the next one into the ceiling.

The third one got through, and while the stupid things basically ignored Kira, when they hit _him_ , they exploded. 

Conner and Trent ran into the cafeteria – and yeah, how much did he love that the four of them, all idiots, ran towards danger? They ran in, the two of them speaking some horrible rhyming spell that he was totally going to tease them about afterwards, but then there was a huge puff of green smoke and everything shimmered, and –

Next thing he knew, he jerked awake in Doctor O’s lab, and all three of them were touching him. Doctor O looked over from the computer and smiled at him. 

“I’m okay,” Ethan wheezed. “I’m okay, I’m all right.” 

Was Trent crying? Kira and Conner had arms around him from either side, and then they caught up Ethan in the rest of their hug. He felt his soulmark tingle, and he made a surprised sound. 

“Yeah, I know,” Conner said. “Me, too.” 

Ethan wasn’t sure what Conner was agreeing to, but he was right. 

***

“Trent!” 

Kira ran to Trent’s side, while Dr O and Conner continued whaling on the monster. This one was some unholy combination of a guitar and maracas, and it shook just enough off beat every time it moved to _intensely_ irritate her. She suspected it’d been made out of poor Ms Marshall, who was an awesome percussionist and deserved much better than this.

“Kira?” He sounded confused as anything. She touched his hair lightly, looking around to see where the next attack was coming from. It was about time some more grunts came out to play in this stupid abandoned quarry that they kept stupidly ending up in! 

“Hey, we’re here, you’ll be okay.”

Ethan flew through the air from an explosion, and landed on Kira’s other side. But he got up and shook it off. 

“Stay down, Trent,” he said, and the worry in his voice sent ripples through her soulmark. She could feel him in the back of her head. “We’ve got you.” 

Trent nodded shakily, and she helped him lie back down on the grass. 

“We’ve got you. Promise.” 

She bought them all milkshakes at Hayley’s after that one. 

***

Okay, so it’d been like eight months now, and Trent decided enough was enough. He needed to talk to them. They were soulmates, sure, and teammates. But that didn’t mean the others had to put up with him all the time. 

They were out in the park again. On one of Trent’s picnic blankets this time. Conner threw grapes at Ethan and both of them crowed every time Ethan caught one. Kira caught their rhythm, and started throwing chunks of banana in between. 

It was cute. They were all so cute. And he loved the sense of them in his head. But he needed to talk, and he didn’t know how to say it, but then the words just started coming out. 

“I want to fit in. But I’m not sure I can. You guys have been inviting me over a lot, and it’s really nice, though.” 

Was that it? Did that work? The three of them stared at him blankly, but there was so much affection hanging in the air in his head, like it was about to crash over him. 

“Those are dates,” Kira said flatly. “Dates. You’re dating us!” 

Conner laughed. “Didn’t you realise? All the touching, all the handholding?”

“You’re dumb enough to fit in just fine,” Ethan told Trent cheerfully. He dodged a straw wrapper from Conner. “I told you guys we should’ve said something to him before.” 

“You did not!” 

“I meant to,” Ethan said comfortably. Kira flicked him on the arm, and Conner ruffled his hair. 

Trent looked from Kira, to Conner, to Ethan, and he shook his head with amazement. “You’re my partners?” 

“Yep! You’re stuck with us!” 

“Oh,” he said, very inadequately, then he said, “ _oh_.” again. 

Ethan spread his hands, making an obvious ‘here, I’m doing the right thing even if you guys aren’t’ gesture at the other two. “Is that okay?” 

“It’s wonderful,” Trent said shyly.


End file.
